“Depression and despair” are not words that you expect to hear repeated by a typical rose-colored glasses wearing speaker at a Convocation address. But last Friday, Professor Shamus Khan of Columbia University greeted the Williston community with just those words as spoke about inequality in America and what that means for the teenagers who were assembled before him. 

A prominent sociologist whose book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite garnered national attention, Khan said that he would not be giving a typical convocation address, and he certainly did not disappoint. Asking students to confront the realities of an economic system in which there are growing disparities between groups of wage earners, Khan urged students to “stay in school” since education level has been shown to predict later economic success. He also encouraged students to maintain a degree of humility towards those who don’t enjoy the same privileges.

Williston graduates have a long tradition of “doing good well,” and it may be that some of our students will be inspired to explore questions similar to those Khan raised in his speech (watch it here). He did say, though, he can’t help them get into college when he self-deprecatingly warned, “Don’t ask me for a letter of recommendation to Columbia, because it won’t help you.” The passion he brings to dry and depressing census data clearly serves a greater purpose to society. Khan’s speech drew laughs, but judging by the number of students who sought him out during the dinner and reception that followed, he also added significantly to his fan base from Williston.

On Sunday, amid the bustle of registration and opening day activities, our school paused to reflect on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. At 10:28 a.m. the Phillips Stevens Chapel bells tolled, signifying the time when the second tower collapsed and bringing a moment of silence to our beautiful campus.

The spectacular, sunny day was eerily reminiscent of the one ten years ago that changed the world our students inherit. As I paused on the banks of the Williston Pond, one of my favorite places on campus, I noted that the stillness of the water reflected the silence around me (OK, so there were a couple of cars going by). To my right, across street and in front of Whitaker-Bement, the American flag fluttered in a calm wind.

My thoughts turned necessarily to family, friends, and then to our students, whose intellectual and moral development and what they do with their lives will shape the character of our nation for decades to come.

Members of the Class of 2015, who are at Becket-Chimney Corners on an orientation trip as part of our Ninth Grade Program, also paused to recognize the anniversary of an event in history that occurred when they were just beginning kindergarten.

Though this saying has been made trite by campaign rhetoric, our students really are our future. Purpose, Passion, and Integrity, the triad of ideals that forms Williston’s mission statement, serves as our compass as we begin anew together the shaping of our future.

Here, Ninth Grade Program co-coordinator and English teacher Matt Sawyer reads a memorial to ninth grade students during orientation.

A recent New Yorker cartoon pictures a boy in front of his traditional grade school class, standing beside the imposing teacher’s desk with the conventionally dressed teacher behind it. The caption reads: “Anyone following me on Twitter already knows what I did this past summer.”

On many different levels, this cartoon speaks volumes about the educational world students these days. They really do “tweet” or Facebook-post, or blog about their summer experiences, especially when these experiences happen far afield and they wish to share and remain in touch with family and friends.

The “show and tell” moments that some of us remember from our own elementary school days are now as archaic as a rotary telephone (pull one out if you have one and show it to a teenager to see how they react if you don’t believe me).

Williston students, as I have discovered with delight these days during their return to campus, have been all over the globe and the U.S. during the summer months. They have undertaken service learning projects, family holidays, internships, camps, jobs, you name it.

We live in a time of highly energized, motivated, and idealistic teenagers who embody our newly adopted mission statement:

The Williston Northampton School inspires students to live with purpose, passion, and integrity.

Our students’ purposeful pursuit of an interest or passion during the summer months energizes the Williston community upon their return, and I, for one, cannot wait to get things started in earnest over the course of the coming days.

Proctors and new students stopped by my house during registration and filled me in on their summer activities.

The seniors are counting down the days until Commencement,AP exams are still on everyone’s minds, and I can’t walk across campus without seeing at least three flyers for various senior projects. It’s certainly a busy time here in Easthampton, but even in the middle of all of the frenzied activity, it is worthwhile to pause for a moment and celebrate the talent and beauty that abounds in the Williston community.

This week I had the opportunity to enjoy the spring choral concert, which featured the strains of Vivaldi’s Gloria performed by the Teller Chorus. This was one of those musical performances that transcend single sensory perception. Those of us lucky enough to be there—and I counted more than 100 students, parents, and faculty in the Chapel—heard wonderful voices, accomplished musicians, and audience approval, but we also felt the music. It was that moving.
 
Williston’s singers and musicians outdid themselves in both preparation and performance, and demonstrated once again that we have one of the best music programs of any boarding school in New England. But that distinction doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and collaboration on the part of teachers, students, and other musicians. The choral concert featured performances by the Caterwaulers, our male a cappella group; the Widdigers, our female a cappella group; and the Teller Chorus, which is comprised of both boys and girls. The orchestra that performed with the Teller Chorus for Gloria featured Fine Arts Teacher Deb Sherr on cello and two Pioneer Valley musicians who played the viola and the trumpet.

On performing with her students, Deb Sherr says, “I absolutely love performing with the students. I often teach and conduct from the cello and find that they are very responsive to my musical cues when I am playing. It makes them really listen, which is an essential part of music making. Plus, it’s much more fun for me!”

Our day students, who hail from all over the Pioneer Valley where the Five Colleges are located, have grown up in a culture that celebrates the arts. When they join our gifted boarding students from around the world, incredible collaborations occur. All who were present know what I am talking about, as do the almost 200 people who caught the performance via live webcast.
 
It’s rewarding to see how excited the students—and the teachers—become when their hard work pays off so handsomely. Since it is already mid-May, the students will be gone and the campus will seem lonely all too soon. While this is a frenzied time of the year, I’m going to try and take in as much as I can, because performances like these remind us of why a school like Williston is so valuable.

Last week provided more firsthand evidence of just how interconnected we are when The Williston Northampton School hosted teachers from King’s Academyin Jordan. Our guests were Shaden Al Salman and Ezdihar Zayyad, both of whom teach Arabic in the Department of Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts, and Sana’ Madadha, program head of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Their goal was to visit classes and speak with teachers in order to observe different teaching methods and strategies. On their three-day tour, which included visits to our sister schools Deerfield Academy and Hotchkiss, our guests wanted to observe schools with long histories of education, as they fine tune their own newly minted school.

During the day, our guests visited language, art, history, math, science, and religion classes and spoke informally with students and teachers. At the end of the day, I met with them and we shared impressions of our two institutions. I am sure that they will have wonderful observations to report to their head of school, John Austin, who is a friend of mine. Certainly, their trip has inspired ideas of ongoing collaborations, and we will have to return the favor with our own delegation to see King’s Academy in action.

Seated (left to right): Kim Evelti, Sana’ Madadha, Ezdihar Zayyad. Standing: myself, Shaden Al Salman.